Authors: Rebecca Fenton
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- A new survey finds millions of Facebook users are potentially exposing valuable personal information beyond their “friends” by not using the site’s privacy controls.
The Consumer Reports State of the Net survey finds nearly 13 million United States Facebook users do not use, or are unaware of the social network’s privacy controls.
The report also projects that some 4.8 million Facebook users have posted information about where they planned to be on a certain day, possibly exposing themselves to burglars. The Consumer Reports survey also finds that 4.7 million users have “liked” a Facebook page about health conditions or treatments, information that could be used against them by insurers.
The survey also determined that some seven million Facebook households experienced site issues in 2011, ranging from someone using their login without permission to being threatened and harassed—a 30 percent increase from 2010.
Americans load all kinds of personal information into Facebook’s database by liking a page, updating their profile and posting status updates on their wall. The following numbers reflect how many people engaged in certain activities during the past 12 months:
• 39.3 million identified a family member in a profile.
• 20.4 million included their birth date and year in their profile.
• 7.7 million "liked" a Facebook page pertaining to a religious affiliation.
• 4.6 million discussed their love life on their wall.
• 2.6 million discussed their recreational use of alcohol on their wall.
• 2.3 million "liked" a page regarding sexual orientation.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio
